Authors:Author List

Esther Vermeer & Geesje Baron, Authors of 3D

Meet two of our newest authors—Esther Vermeer and Geesje Baron, whose book “3-D Folded Blocks” is about to hit the shelves. Both live in rural Manitoba, Canada, both emigrated from The Netherlands at different points in their lives, and both have interesting and eclectic artistic backgrounds. Is it any wonder that they became instant friends when they first met?

Esther is a quilt designer and painter who was introduced to quilting in 1998. She uses an eclectic approach when planning a new project and her inspirations often include North European mythology, the brilliant colors and natural shapes of Art Nouveau, and the elegance of Art Deco. Her work has been featured in various exhibits and when she’s not in her studio or taking classes, she teaches private and group workshops in English and French.

Geesje (pronounced “Gay-shuh”) is co-owner/operator of a dairy farm in addition to being a quilt designer and longarm quilter. She has a diverse background in spinning, weaving, fabric painting and dyeing and has been quilting since 1986. Her primary inspirations are the abstract geometric and impossible shapes found in the work of Victor Vasarely, Oscar Reutersvard, M.C. Escher, and Tamas Farkas. She has won awards in both provincial and national juried quilt shows, and enjoys sharing her passion for quilting and dyeing with her students.

After car-pooling to guild meetings together for about five years, they realized that summer was too long a season to put the quilting supplies away, so they started meeting weekly to quilt year ’round, and it wasn’t long before they began talking about writing a book. Their book on three-dimensional folded blocks is a complete collaboration, a pooling of the ideas and abilities of two very talented quilters.

Judy Allen

Familiar with every feature of the quilted feather, Judy Allen focuses a great deal of her workshop instruction on this popular motif. A longarm quilter, trainer, pattern designer, and author, her quilting experience is as multifaceted as the feather design itself. Before quilting, Judy was a china painter. She incorporated her painting skills, such as curved crosshatching, into quilting. Judy's Quick Quilting, her longarm business, has been in operation since 1990. She hosts five-day training workshops, in her home, on the fundamentals of the feather design, basic to advanced machine skills for planned or freestyle quilting, as well as teaching how to create your own designs. She also travels nationally teaching her feather drawing techniques.

Kathie Alyce

Kathie Alyce is an award-winning contemporary quiltmaker who has been working with fabric for as long as she can remember. Her earliest memories of handwork go back to around the age of seven or eight when she began doing embroidery work. She continued to create all her life, moving from stitchery to drawing and art classes in her youth. She went on to learn all the traditional craft and sewing arts including dressmaking, knitting, weaving, and dyeing, along with working in charcoals and pastels. In 1985, she moved on to traditional quilting. With that as her launching pad, she went on to create her own work with a bold, contemporary use of fabric and color.

Kathie found herself in fabric. It was the perfect combination of her history in crafts and the opportunity to express her emotions in art. Modern day quilting offered the chance to create and be artistic with fabric once the basics of construction were learned.

Now you can find her teaching, lecturing, designing curved templates, and publishing patterns. In addition, Kathie is featured online at www.quilterstv.com in two video segments, “FFB Template Quilts” and “More with Kathie Alyce’s Templates.”

You can learn more about Kathie on her website, www.waterfallquilts.com or contact her directly at alyce@waterfallquilts.com to purchase the FFB template.

Frieda Anderson

Frieda Anderson is a quilt artist, teacher, lecturer and author. She has been making quilts for over 30 years. She has a bachelor of science degree in art history with a minor in ceramics and an associates degree in fashion design. Frieda travels frequently to lecture and conduct workshops for quilt groups throughout the United States, and she has had articles in numerous magazines. Frieda is one of the founding members of PAQS, Professional Art Quilt Alliance, a networking group that meets in the Chicago area once a month. Since early childhood she has been making art. She says, \"My parents always encouraged me in all my artistic directions. My inspiration comes from the world around me. As an artist, I try to reflect what is important in my life, my environment, and my family. Much of what I am making is the direct result of my daily walks in the woods with my dog, George.\"

Jody Anderson

I am Australian, married, and Mum (Mom!) to two young children, with a passion for all things fabric. I have been designing my own quilts and bags for more than six years, have been fortunate enough to have several published in magazines. I also enjoy presenting a regular bag-making workshop slot at a couple of our big interstate quilt shows.

It is fair to say that making quilts and bags has taken over our lives. My DH (dear husband) now feigns deafness rather than answer the inevitable question, "What should I call this bag?" and Master (9) has started contributing ideas for bag designs as well. Miss (7) just wants them all.

My wonderful Mum and I channelled our creative passions into an online business several years ago, and as friends and partners, we now have a series of websites dedicated to quilt and bag patterns.

Mimi Ayars

A native of Delaware, Mimi Ayars, Ph.D., calls herself a "hardy Texas transplant." She caught the spirit of quilting in the 1976 revival while living in the Chicago area, once belonging to five guilds concurrently. Her first quilt, STARS AND STRIPES, was selected for a show of bicentennial quilts at the Museum of the American Quilter's Society in 1991. Dr. Ayars has taught sociology at nine universities in six states. She retired in 1991 to pursue two hobbies: writing and quilting. Her articles on quiltmaking have been published in the "National Quilting Association's Quilting Quarterly" (formerly "Patchwork Patter"), and "Quilt World." Published works include: "Jacobean Applique: Book I, Exotica" and "Jacobean Applique: Book II, Romantica."

Rebecca Barker

Rebecca has always loved to paint, and she knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist. She received her art training from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and has pursued a painting career ever since. Around 1994, having been a quilter for several years, she started to include quilts in her landscape paintings. The first of these depicts a quilt hanging on a clothesline in the foreground and a farm landscape in the background.

Cheryl Barnes

In 1994, Cheryl discovered machine quilting, purchased a longarm machine, and founded her own quilting business, Golden Threads. The pursuit of building a library of quilting designs took her company from quilting to publishing. Golden Threads continues to publish originally designed quilting patterns from prominent United States and Australian artists, each with their own style.
Cheryl and her husband, Jim, purchased Powell Publications to expand their listing of designers and patterns. Stencils, pantographs, pattern packs, books, quilted garments, and notions enable them to service all quilters from hand and domestic sewing machine quilters to those with home quilting systems or longarm machines. Residing in Illinois, Cheryl and Jim work full time in the business, assisted at various times by their three sons.

Geesje Baron

Geesje (pronounced “Gay-shuh”) Baron is a quilt designer and longarm quilter living in rural Manitoba, Canada. She has a diverse background in spinning, weaving, fabric painting and dyeing, and has been quilting since 1986. Her primary inspirations are the abstract geometric and impossible shapes found in the work of Victor Vasarely, Oscar Reutersvard, M.C. Escher, and Tamas Farkas, and her quilts have a distinctly modern European flavor. She has won awards in both provincial and national juried quilt shows, and enjoys sharing her passion for quilting and dyeing with her students.

Roberta M Benvin

A beginning quilting class in an adult education program in 1984 initiated Roberta Benvin as a quilter. Four years later, she was elected president of the York Quilters Guild in Pennsylvania, and also began four years of employment in a quilt shop. Within a few months, Roberta was teaching classes at the shop and eventually took over the quilting classes for the adult education program. While working in the quilt shop, Roberta restored antique quilts in response to requests from customers. The restoration has since developed into a full-time business. Roberta's passion for antique quilts has led to her involvement in the York County Quilt Documentation Project of Pennsylvania which gave Roberta the opportunity to examine numerous early nineteenth-century quilts. Her recent quilting projects have focused primarily on making reproductions of antique quilts, resulting in her awareness of a need for authentic quilting designs from the early 1800s. Roberta has resided in York County, Pennsylvania, since 1969, and has three grown children.